Acknowledging the Support of “Suifengsan”, “Beliya Chongchongdu Chenmi”, “Luo Tong Mengxin”, and “Yinni Er Nuli”
Although Si Chen had waved his hand, Sheng Muxue was not in a hurry to leave. He calmly asked another question: “Has Star Lord Yao Guang given the order to let me through?”
“Yes.” Si Chen responded in a distracted manner.
Sheng Muxue finally breathed a sigh of relief. Acting as if nothing were wrong, he strolled back toward the teleportation array. Although he appeared relaxed on the surface, heaven knows that with every step he took, he feared Si Chen might call out to him again. Fortunately, he was safe this time, and he successfully entered the array.
The teleportation array only allowed one person to pass at a time, so it closed immediately after he entered. The surroundings were sealed off by opaque walls. Inside the array, a holographic map projected before Sheng Muxue, prompting him to select his destination.
He could only teleport to towns that possessed teleportation arrays; otherwise, it was impossible. Moreover, arrays in the Upper Spirit Realm could only teleport within the Upper Spirit Realm and could not reach the Lower Spirit Realm. However, that was fine. Sheng Muxue did not have a grand goal; he just needed to get out of Luo Yun City.
He chose a remote town that was far away from Luo Yun City, far from the Lower Spirit Realm, and even further from the Demon Realm. He reasoned that if Yun Zheng discovered he had escaped Luo Yun City, he would assume Sheng Muxue was fleeing toward the Demon Realm or the Spirit Beast Realm. After all, one was his home base from this current life, and the other was his base from his previous life. But Sheng Muxue was not that foolish.
After selecting the location and the map vanished, a box for depositing spirit stones appeared before him. Above it was the price: twenty low-grade spirit stones. Sheng Muxue took the stones from his storage bag and tossed them generously into the box. As the box disappeared, the array finally activated. The light beneath his feet instantly engulfed half of his body.
Just as Sheng Muxue was about to vanish completely, with only his head remaining, the light stopped abruptly. The sealed array was suddenly forced open from the outside. The person who had opened it was none other than Si Chen.
The moment Sheng Muxue saw Si Chen’s expression, he knew he was in big trouble. He had been right; the man refused to let him go! But he was so close to escaping; he was not willing to fail now. He used the faint spiritual power left in his body, trying to forcefully close the teleportation array. He only needed one more second, no, half a second, and he could escape!
But Si Chen would not let him close the array so easily. He summoned all his avatars back to restore himself to his peak state. A massive wave of energy surged around him, actually shattering the entire circular platform of the teleportation array! As the array was destroyed, Sheng Muxue’s body, which had been in the process of disappearing, reappeared entirely. He was also blown backward by the powerful blast.
Fortunately, Si Chen was quick-witted. He flicked two rays of spiritual light from his sleeves, which snared Sheng Muxue’s body and dragged him back. Sheng Muxue landed steadily, stopping an inch in front of Si Chen. He had initially thought Si Chen was being so aggressive because he had recognized him, but unexpectedly, Si Chen suddenly declared: “You bold thief, you actually dared to steal spirit stones from the Xie family to use for your own purposes.”
Sheng Muxue froze for a second before realizing: he had been set up by Xie Jinghong! Most aristocratic families placed an anti-theft family seal on their spirit stones, which only lifted if the owner used them themselves. The bag of stones Xie Jinghong had given him was still under that seal. As soon as he used them, it would be flagged as stolen or illegally obtained property.
Back then, Sheng Muxue had seen Xie Jinghong’s lovesick expression and assumed he was just acting out of lust, hence why he had given him so much money. He had never expected the man to harbor such malicious intentions to frame him! But what was his ultimate goal? Had he recognized that Sheng Muxue was the Demon Lord? Was he afraid of losing a direct confrontation, so he resorted to this?
While Sheng Muxue was thinking rapidly, the guards had already used the immortal-binding chains to tie his hands behind his back. Then he heard Si Chen’s mocking voice: “I wondered who would actually want you looking like that. Turns out, it was all a ruse. You were in such a hurry to flee the city just to fence the stolen goods, right? It is a pity you did not know the Xie family stones have a seal.”
Sheng Muxue had not expected that even a God Official like Si Chen would judge people by their appearance. He seemed to hold some disdain for ugly people. Fine, it really was a world that prioritized looks. Sheng Muxue did not immediately defend himself, but instead calmly asked: “How will theft be punished?”
“Sent to the Thunder Penitentiary.”
Sheng Muxue was now caught between a rock and a hard place. If he said Xie Jinghong had given him the stones voluntarily and demanded a confrontation, his changed appearance would make the truth impossible to explain. Now, he only had two choices:
Admit he was in disguise, get caught by Si Chen, and be thrown back to Yun Zheng.
Admit he was a thief, get caught by Si Chen, and be thrown into the Thunder Penitentiary.
Neither option was a way out, but Sheng Muxue subconsciously chose the second one. “If I stole the Xie family’s spirit stones, shouldn’t it be up to the Xie family to dispose of the matter?”
Si Chen sneered: “You think the Xie family’s punishments are lighter than the Thunder Penitentiary? How naive! In the Thunder Penitentiary, you might at least come out missing only an arm or a leg. But if you enter the Xie family’s custody for a crime, you probably would not survive a single day before your life was ended.”
Wait, what did Si Chen mean by that? Soon, Si Chen provided the explanation: “Because the current head of the Xie family is the God Official in charge of all criminal justice in the Immortal Realm, Star Lord Yu Heng. And the Thunder Penitentiary is under the Xie family’s jurisdiction.”
Great. Sheng Muxue did not know what kind of karma he had accrued to end up with a predecessor whose enemies were either all high-ranking elites or whose families were all high-ranking elites. If he had not faked his own death, he would have been chopped into shrimp paste for a hotpot long ago.
However, no matter how bad the situation was, it was still better than being captured by Yun Zheng. Sheng Muxue insisted: “Hand me over to the Xie family. I want to apologize to their head in person and seek his forgiveness.”
Perhaps the current head of the Xie family was Xie Jinghong’s brother. In any case, it certainly would not be the disabled man who could not even stand up. It was also unlikely to be Xie Wuyai; five hundred years had passed, after all. If his brother happened to be a lecher, maybe he could seduce him once he restored his original appearance, and he might just find a way to survive. A comeback might still be possible.
Seeing Sheng Muxue’s persistence, Si Chen said nothing more. He waved at the guards: “Take him to the Xie family.” He was not being merciful to this petty thief, but rather, he felt that matters regarding the Xie family should indeed be handled by them. Besides, he had been telling the truth earlier. Falling into the hands of the Xie family would be no more pleasant than the Thunder Penitentiary.